H-1B visa lottery leaves 40,000 skilled foreign workers out of luck

Nearly 40,000 skilled foreign workers offered jobs in the United States are out of luck after the U.S. immigration agency received too many applications for H-1B visas.

After being flooded with about 124,000 applications in five days, but having only 85,000 visas to give each year, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services ran a computer-generated lottery on Sunday to randomly award the available visas.

The winners and losers have yet to be notified.

Sunday was the first time since 2008 that the United States has had such a rush in interest, forcing a random selection. Many companies say the high demand reflects an improving tech economy.

U.S. employers apply for the H-1B visas to sponsor workers they have recruited in "specialty occupations" such as computer programming. The visas last for three years and can be renewed for another three.

Immigration officials conducted two lotteries Sunday. The first was for the 20,000 H-1B slots reserved for those who have advanced degrees.

Anyone who lost that lottery was placed into the larger pool of 65,000 visas. Immigration officials will begin notifying winners and losers next week.